Overwhelmed.. but making it

This week has been a bit overwhelming. It's the little things that throw me off the most.

Two little things:
1. My 'N' key is sticking. This means that I have to pay attention every time I want to have the letter 'n' appear. It's not a big deal - but somehow it makes me feel a little off.
2. On Monday, I left my plug adapter at home. I had taken it off of my computer to use with my camera charger and then I forgot to put it back on to my computer. I showed up at work Monday morning and voila my computer was a paperweight for the day. A small thing, but that made me very off balance all week.

However, this week has been good in many other ways. We hit our first target deadline for my project with the WCC. (http://women.overcomingviolence.org) I think the site looks great! (although I am a bit biased). It has just been stressful. I also have been working on Student World again. And Fed News. The latest edition is available online! All of this means that I am working on about 10 different projects. And to top it all off I agreed (a long time ago) to help organize the Ecumenical Learning Session this week. Which was supposed to be Wednesday, but we moved to Friday because we were too busy. It will be fun! We're doing a Christmas Tradition theme. So we'll just talk about what we do for Christmas and drink hot chocolate and decorate Gingerbread cookies! So excited! So fun things, but yet a little stressful.

This week has been stressful, but I think I am getting my work done. I'm feeling better about it - although it has FLOWN by. I feel like yesterday was Monday. Tomorrow is already Friday.

My work here is rewarding. My project with the WCC got picked up by Christianity Today. There is also a Christian News Channel in New Zealand that is looking to do a story on our study too! So I feel like this study we are designing might actually make a difference in people's lives. I hope (and pray) that it does. I suppose all this work is worth it in the end.

On another, unrelated note, I am going to celebrate Thanksgiving tonight by eating a traditional Scottish meal! Haggis, neeps and tatties (which apparently in English means Haggis - ie. sheeps innards - with mashed potatoes and turnips).

Turkey!

So I've decided to celebrate American Thanksgiving here in Geneva.

The real day is next Thursday. (We celebrate Thanksgiving on the 4th Thursday of November). However, as this is not the United States - Thanksgiving is not a holiday. So I decided to have it on this Sunday instead. I am very excited about it. Last time I hosted Thanksgiving, I was in France and it was a great success - however, I never found a turkey. We ended up eating Guinea Fowl and Chicken. This time we have a turkey! Sort of. I went to Manor - which is one of the more expensive Department stores in town which has a very nice food section. They had turkeys. Actual turkeys! The price said "1.98" I was hoping this was per kilo. It was per 100 g. Therefore, if a turkey weighed 8 kilos. (about 18 pounds) it would cost 160 swiss francs (remember the swiss franc and the US dollar are about even). So I decided that I could not possibly buy a turkey from Manor.

Then today I went to France. We went to the little market in the border town of Ferney. It's a great French Market. Somehow the French have managed to find the right combination of vegetables, cheese vendors and butchers (and kebab stands and clothing stores) that makes a market just perfect. I will definitely miss French markets when I'm back in the States. I asked all the butchers if they had turkeys. None did, some said they could order one for me for next weekend. But none. Then we went to the Hyper Champion (This is the equivalent of Wal-Mart) in the town. We looked and we asked and finally we found all the prepackaged chickens. Not pre-cooked - just wrapped. We found a large bird. It looks about the size of turkey. The picture of the front of it looks sort of like a turkey. But - it has in big letters "coq". Which means rooster in French! So my turkey is most likely a rooster - but I'm just going to let myself believe that it's a turkey. You have to have turkey for Thanksgiving!

I'm very excited about the meal. It should be great! It'll be as American as I can make it over here. (Although there won't be any pecan pie because I could't find corn syrup)

I'm glad I get to celebrate this holiday with my friends here in Geneva. I suppose that they are what I'm thankful for this year. (among a myriad of other things!)